DESIGN STUDIO VII, LAU DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, sec 33 & 34

Mohammad Berry / May Khalifeh - Conservatoire Nationale

Conceptualizing
an urban intervention in an aged area like Mar Mikhael does not signify a reinterpretation
of past shadows. One could easily fall into the trap of recreating what was
once there, neglecting what the area now starves for. The main design approach should be sensitive to certain elements
of the site such as parameters on the micro and macro scales; a program that
reflects the needs of Mar Mikhael which are elsewhere available within Beirut.
Mar Mikhael became the receptor of young artisans who have a lot to give.

3 main elements: cars / souk / commercial uses

From this perspective, we are
designing as to point out the dynamism of an area full of memories. From kids
laying down stones on an empty lot to make their own football court to
activists settling down creating a base to send out their message, the area is
interactive on many levels, this is why we decided to create an "Urban
Stage". Here you are always seeing and being seen, the ambiance is
amiable, generations merge together creating harmony within the beat of the
city.

Someone once said "you can't
learn music from Books, it's out there". Extending the flow of people into
the site is eliminating boundaries on various directions. The need to open up
to the port and break the monotonous agglomeration of Mar Mikhael's city fabric
seemed almost inescapable.

Through
the intertwining of circulatory pathways, both pedestrian

and vehicular flows start blending
and revive the urban fabric related to the city of Beirut; instead of only
being concerned with the ephemeral

Instructor

Course outline / objectives

The studio will focus in the Mar Mikhael area of downtown Beirut, Lebanon, explore and analyze its current urban conditions, speculate on the future dynamic of the area, and finally propose an architectural synthesis that comes to solve some of todays and possible future issues.

Mar Mikhael is following the rapid (yet ephemeral) change of Gemmayze, from a mainly local low income residents area, to a nightlife adventure land and ex patriots bee hive. Apparently Gemmayze followed the Hamra area in this urban gentrification whirlpool, a phenomenon in Beirut that seems to take place arbitrarily. Still, bars and restaurants in Gemmayze are now closing one after another, revealing a quite uncertain future for the area.

The scope of this studio is to design an “Urban Hub” in Mar Mikhael that will be able to sparkle viable growth. Students will have to answer the before mentioned problems, by their design strategy / proposal. They will have to propose a hybrid space: a mix of public and private spaces in a currently empty lot, that will be able to sustain today’ s gentrification of the area, while respecting the existing resident’s needs. Their final design will have to host diverse target groups that actually use it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This “Urban Hub” will have to promote sustainable, architecturally designed growth for the whole area, instead of the current arbitrary and ephemeral condition. The site is located between Madrid street, Pharoun street and the Coast highway.

Like Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael is characterised by a very dense and diverse city grid. Almost all of Beirut's building typologies can be found here. From dwellings dating back to the Ottoman Empire, to Bauhaus influenced concrete buildings of the 1920's and contemporary high end residential towers. Students are expected to analyze these typologies with drawings, photographs and sketches in their site analysis as well as the city fabric typologies.

At the same time, students will develop skills in using digital media as a design tool in the generation of a project, and not just as a representational tool at the end of the design process. Digital tools will have to be used in order to experiment with hybrid programmatic connections and transitions as well as tectonics and structure beyond Le Corbusier's DOM-INO model. Ambiance and atmosphere are also to be taken under consideration.

Readings extend from Rem Koolhaas's "Junkspace" and Reiser and Umemototo's "Atlas of novel tectonics" to Kevin Kelly's "Hive mind" in "Out of control".